Archive for August, 2011

Great talk describing a revolution that is occurring in cancer treatment and cancer prevention. It’s all about preventing angiogenesis, the process by which tumors hog blood supply from the rest of the body. Anti-angiogenic drugs have been developed. Of course, research is proving that many natural substances found in plant foods are equally potent, and you don’t need an expensive prescription or side effects! The video also importantly mentions the synergistic effect of natural substances. If you haven’t gotten the point by now, a wide variety of plant foods is surely the best medicine on earth! Lastly, I have to point out that many of the foods on this list are also radioprotective foods, such as turmeric, green tea, ginseng, citrus fruits, berries full of anti-oxidants, etc, etc.

So far, this is the most comprehensive resource I have found on natural approaches to radionuclide detoxification. It covers acute radiation sickness as well as lower-level exposure and contamination and a wide range of treatments. This ebook is just loaded with information. Still reading it myself. So far the only thing I don’t agree with is the clorox bath – go with the epsom salt or baking soda versions instead.

We assume that contaminated beef has been shipped overseas. We are also certain that cattle in North America have been grazing on fallout-laden grass for several months now. Obviously, the levels in North American beef will be much lower than numbers of beef raised in Japan. This is a moderately informative article regarding the contamination of beef in Japan. As usual, we need to filter the usual rubbish about not being of any concern. Cesium 137 is toxic at any dose, even if the dose won’t kill you all by itself. Comparisons to flying halfway around the world make radiation sound innocuous, but as any flight attendant will tell you, frequent flying accelerates aging.

Once again, I will stress the importance of pectin as the most effective chelator for radioactive cesium.

Do people who have eaten contaminated beef need to worry about their health?

Not unless a person continues to consume tainted beef over a long period of time. As of Thursday, the most highly contaminated beef found contained radioactive cesium of 4,350 becquerels per kilogram, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The meat did not reach the market.

Eating 1 kg of the meat is roughly equal to a radiation dose of 82.65 microsieverts for a period during which radioactive cesium remains in one’s body. If a person eats food with radioactive cesium, half the amount remains in the body for nine days for a baby younger than 1. But the duration gets longer as people age, and it takes 90 days for those aged 50.

The 82.65 microsieverts compares with the 100 microsieverts of radiation a person would be exposed to during a one-way air trip from Tokyo to New York.

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Here is another good example of why it is so vitally important that these decaying nuclear plants do not have their operating licenses renewed, but are retired. I’ve heard that salmon have returned to the Connecticut river, after many years of absence, indicating the river is healthier than it used to be, but apparently not clean enough.

A geiger counter is not an effective tool for monitoring radioactive contamination of food. Until now, effective radiation screening tools for food and water have been too costly for consumers, farmers or those that sell and serve food. Considering that the Japanese government is only reluctantly getting around to radiation monitoring, and the US government has chosen to neglect it altogether, it is a very good thing that affordable tools for radiation screening are coming on the market soon – possibly even by October, 2011. The use of this plastic in scintillators, a type of radiation screening device, may reduce the cost of scintillators by as much as 90%.

From the Wall St. Journal:

By Judy Lam

Talk about a timely invention.

Scintirex emits fluorescent light in varying degrees based on the level of radiation it detects.

Behold – the radiation detector made from the same plastic used in PET bottles, at a tenth of the cost of existing radiation detection machinery.

What’s more, the product, to be known as “Scintirex”, is made in Japan.

Close to four months on from the March 11 disasters and ensuing nuclear crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, with authorities now seeking to provide tens of thousands of radiation monitors for concerned parents and children, Scintirex could hardly be more topical.

The first Scintirex detectors could be available as soon as this fall, but the invention didn’t come about overnight. Dr. Hidehito Nakamura, an assistant professor at Kyoto University’s nuclear reactor research institute, said it has taken him five years to develop the material, which is designed to emit fluorescent light in varying degrees based on the level of radiation it detects.

Even though Denise Anne and I have radically adapted our diet to the new realities of radiation contamination, searching out pre-March 11 produced items, finding food grown south of the Equator, growing our own and knowing which foods currently on the grocery shelves were made with last summer’s harvest, most corn being an important example.

We still consume items that aren’t guaranteed to be fallout free. These items have to be tested.

Lucky for us we have an Inspector nuclear radiation monitor which I have used for nearly a dozen years in my role as an environmental investigative reporter. While it may not catch everything due to limitations beyond my control, it sure does catch a lot.

When we go shopping, we first aim to shop rad-smart and then test the items upon returning home. Sometimes, however, I will test items in stores to save me the problem of buying something I know could be impacted by Fukushima. Other times, I’ll test the groceries out in the car before driving off.

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Below is a podcast interview of Arnie Gunderson. It is the first time I’ve heard him talk specifically about quantifying health risks. He also talks about ongoing fallout on the west coast of North America and elsewhere:

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Good documentary from NHK covering a lot of ground. Starts with the independent initiatives to track radioactive fallout, and gets into some of the challenges faced by the residents of Fukushima. Starts a bit slow and gets better as it goes along.

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Unfortunately, this story is just one of many examples of the widespread nature of nuclear contamination and the disregard for human well-being shown by public officials.

HOUSTON—For more than 20 years, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under-reported the amount of radiation found in drinking water provided by communities all across Texas. As a result, health risks to people consuming the water have been underestimated in many water systems where radioactive contaminants are present.

The TCEQ regulates water systems for compliance with federal safe-water drinking regulations. However, KHOU has learned the state regulating agency consistently took radiation readings it received from the water testing lab run by the Department of State Health Services and lowered the “official” radiation readings reported by the independent lab. The TCEQ would do this by subtracting off the margin of error for all radiation readings it would receive. The subtractions helped some utilities avoid radiation violations that could have forced them to clean up their water decades ago.

Harris County Municipal Utility District No.105 is one of those utilities that benefited from the TCEQ “math.” The utility did receive two official violation notices, in 2008 and 2009, for having too much radiation in the water supply it provides to thousands of residents. However, KHOU has learned the MUD would have exceeded federal regulations for radiation in its water as far back as 1988, had the state not subtracted off the margin of error for radiation readings.